In 1972, the release of the game Pong™ marked the beginning of the video game industry. Since that time, there has been explosive growth in the computer gaming and entertainment industries coincidental with developments in computer technology. Major developments in sound cards, graphics cards, graphics accelerators, CD Rom drives, and joystick technologies, essential aspects of modern computers, all evolved out of the gaming industry to a large extent. Advances in computer processing power and the development of the internet have lead to the increased complexity and realism of computer-generated animation and gaming.
With gaming in particular, improvements in three-dimensional (“3-D”) graphics have allowed development of games with more life-like characters, realistic movements, and complex environments. The ultimate goal in many gaming programs and systems is to enable the virtual characters therein to move and behave within the virtual environment in a natural way that emulates a physical environment as closely as possible, and to provide the user with a virtual environment that more closely simulates the experience of being in the game. The development of online games, such as massively multiplayer online games, now gives users the ability to interact with multiple players in different locations to enhance the strategy options, interactivity, and realism of the game. As the quest for additional realism continues, adding haptic (tactile) or touch sensory characteristics to the virtual environment represents a major opportunity to enhance the end-user's entertainment experience. Currently, the state of the art in tactile feedback consists of vibration within joysticks or hand control units to simulate movement and resistance. This is a very limited sensory response and is not representative of the true tactile event or environment.
Computer modeling of tactile information has been evolving over the last fifteen years. Currently, tactile feedback information is being incorporated into some virtual reality systems, such as training simulators for the aircraft, computer, and medical industries, and computer games. The state of the art of tactile feedback for these systems typically consists of providing the user with a resistance or vibratory force to either simulate an encountered resistance or to act as an event indicator. From a morphological and physiological standpoint, these systems are designed to produce a low level vibration, or “rumbling” stimulus, which activates the vibratory sensory pathways of the user.
These types of vibratory stimuli are characteristically produced by small motors, with or without off-set cam systems, which emit the vibrations and are felt by the user. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,840, to Thorner et al. These devices are readily available and of low cost, so they have been the mainstay of “tactile or force feedback” game peripherals. Taking a step back and examining the technology and user experience, these systems just act as a rough proxy or indicator for game events that are delivered via another sensory pathway other than sight or sound. They do not truly differentiate nor accurately represent the various types of actions or forces occurring within the game, but are widely applied across all types of action within the game and used merely to indicate that some event of note is occurring within the game.
However, such prior art devices are not capable of producing certain force responses that may be desirable. For example, in first person shooter games, when a character in the game is struck or shot, the keyboard or hand controller may vibrate, indicating an unfavorable event within the game is occurring. The vibration of the controller or keyboard is of course not representative of the actual event occurring to the game character. A gun shot or blow to the chest or back is not well-represented by a low level rumble or vibrational force to the user's hand. A preferable tactile response would produce a location specific impact to the user. Preferably, the intensity of the tactile response would vary, for example with distance, bullet caliber, weapon type, etc.
In a game scenario, a more realistic experience would provide an actual location-specific impact stimulus that could be influenced by various parameters (e.g., weapon type, weapon size, distance to target, presence or absence of body armor), and correspondingly impart a variable force to more accurately emulate the gaming events, of course without actually inflicting actual damage or harm. In prior patents and applications by the present inventor, a tactile or impact generating system is disclosed that will allow for the actual imparting of forces to the users body. It is contemplated herein that the imparted forces may be modulated to simulate a wide variety of actions and events.
Currently, there are several hundred PC games that enable such force-feedback functionality and an estimated five million installed force-feedback peripherals. There remains a need, however, for advances in tactile gaming devices and systems and in providing tactile gaming devices that are effective, reliable, durable and manufacturable.